Is tesco rationing???

[Santaslittlemelter]

I'm trying to do the online shop here and not only is stock a bit shit, like no dishwasher salt, no pork mince, no organic cucumber, no most types of tomato, but I have noticed that a load of the things in my basket say I have reached my maximum quantity. So I am allowed one red pepper, one pack of two small salmon fillets, one pack of tomatoes, one cucumber.....I have a family of 6.

I haven't heard much recently on supply issues. But is anyone else finding this happening? Its a bit shit for a huge retailer.

Spanish lorry rivers are on strike. So that’s why there is a shortage of tomatoes etc. they are picketing docks at Bilbao and Santander (have seen with my own eyes).

@JesusInTheCabbageVan

Tomatoes and salad can only be imports at this time of year

Salad, probably, yes, but to be pedantic, you can buy British tomatoes out of season.

I'm going to be even more pedantic and say you can grow winter leaves like Mizuna and Winter Purslane outside/under a cloche in the UK :)

@JesusInTheCabbageVan always better to support your local farmers! Farmers are generally adopters of renewable energy and I know a lot of farms with biomass (they power the whole of the UK’s electric for something like 50 days a year!). It’s just something to consider that it’s likely to get more expensive and a smaller supply this year.

I don’t know if you’ve ever seen how fruit and veg is grown in Spain but it’s hugely damaging! This is an satellite picture showing all of the plastic greenhouses. It generates around 35,000 tonnes of plastic waste a year. It polluted the seas and surrounding area.

Salad, probably, yes, but to be pedantic, you can buy British tomatoes out of season.

You can grow lettucey things in an unheated greenhouse through winter in England. My PIL do but I’m not so desperate for lettuce in January

@LeftFootForward sorry in my lettuce excitement I missed your post

No Granny Smiths in Sainsburys.

I had to buy Golden Delicious

(true but I am also being a tad sarcastic!)

@GreenFingersWouldBeHandy
I have very dry hair & there have been times I have done this - before I wash my hair I put a tiny amount of cooking oil (if you can get it!) in my hand using a couple of fingers from my other hand I place the tiniest amount on a few dry tips of my hair - not too much - comb it through than wash it thoroughly with shampoo
Don't comb it into the roots

I think for environmental reasons we should start to buy in season veg - both energy consumption (heated green houses as per pp), transport miles, & because it simply makes sense
Or buy frozen

Could be problems with air carriers too. Many cancelled flights

@mumwon

I think for environmental reasons we should start to buy in season veg - both energy consumption (heated green houses as per pp), transport miles, & because it simply makes sense Or buy frozen

Actually, we'd be better off buying dried vegetables to eat out of season, like we did years ago and like how Africa and South America does now.

Unfortunately, dried beans here are barely any cheaper than canned ones, dried corn apparently doesn't exist, and dried peas died out with our grandmothers.

@mumwon

I think for environmental reasons we should start to buy in season veg - both energy consumption (heated green houses as per pp), transport miles, & because it simply makes sense Or buy frozen

We do not grow enough to feed everyone. So who gets the in season food. From "the grocer" website... "The UK is just 18% self-sufficient in fruit and 55% in fresh veg – the latter declining 16% in the past two decades"... gonna be a lot of hungry folk.

[quote PickAChew]@eatsleeprantrepeat if we did become reliant on only home grown produce then that wouldn't include much salad at all between October and May as we have neither the climate nor the daylight to produce those crops year round without extreme measures. They definitely wouldn't be affordable for many people.

If we ate only home grown, our diets through the winter would be fresh root veg, cabbage, kale, leeks and onions, apples, spuds, greenhouse tomatoes and frozen or tinned/jarred anything else we can produce in the summer that can successfully be preserved.[/quote]
Good, eating salad in winter is unsustainable. It won't harm people to eat seasonally.

@mumwon

I think for environmental reasons we should start to buy in season veg - both energy consumption (heated green houses as per pp), transport miles, & because it simply makes sense Or buy frozen

Ok tell the farmers to increase yield by 80% to feed us all 😂

@elbea I'm ashamed to say I had no idea of the scale of it. We try to buy local as much as possible, but I'm sure we can do better.

Lidl looked like an abandoned building the other day although we do have lots of holiday makers which usually explains it (why the shops don’t consider this I don’t know!).

@Justanotherlurker

We are currently coming through the world wide shut down due to Covid, empty shelves are happening everywhere so those trying to shoe horn brexit into the situation are not really as up to date on the world wide issue at the minute, add to that the current situation in Ukraine and the navigation chanels that have been restricted it compounds the issue.

Anyone who was complaining that we didn't lock down harder and tougher should offer some self reflection in this, but they won't

Brexit was the absolute last thing we needed, what with everything else.

It’s this a brexit thing?

Mainland Europe here, and shelves are full. Doesn’t seem be a problem getting tomatoes from Spain still or toilet roll from Finland. No short of cooking oils either.

@Caspianberg

It’s this a brexit thing?

Mainland Europe here, and shelves are full. Doesn’t seem be a problem getting tomatoes from Spain still or toilet roll from Finland. No short of cooking oils either.

Not as much of a Brexit issue as other things: in particular, all our southern European imports come through the short straits and more than half the ferry capacity is currently laid up in Dover because of P&O Ferries' little stunt.

@Caspianberg

It’s this a brexit thing?

Mainland Europe here, and shelves are full. Doesn’t seem be a problem getting tomatoes from Spain still or toilet roll from Finland. No short of cooking oils either.

We're an island. It's easier for problems in the transport system etc to affect us and cut us off. Plus we import most of our food

Well yes, so why does the government say it’s due to covid/ Ukraine/ Spain ish drivers? That’s not really island related. And it’s always been in the same location

like no dishwasher salt

What's causing the shortage of dishwasher salt? I don't get it

@mustlovegin

like no dishwasher salt

What's causing the shortage of dishwasher salt? I don't get it

Price rises.

www.thegrocer.co.uk/household-goods/dishwasher-salt-price-hikes-lead-to-shortage-in-the-supermarkets/664158.article

And Brexit/Lorry Driver strikes/issues getting across the Channel. A lot is imported from Europe.

Thanks @NeverDropYourMooncup

The sanitary towel/tampon section in Aldi the other day was empty. I wondered if it was because people had bought them all up to send to refugees in Poland. Nice thought but the time it would take to go from the person buying, dropping off at some church hall to be sorted, placed in a random cardboard box and put in the back of some blokes van, driven across Europe, put in another church hall type place to be sorted again and then maybe eventually reach those that need them... people could have sent money donations to someone like the Red Cross who could buy bulk directly from a distribution centre in Poland and women could get them quicker.
Meanwhile I am using incontinence pads for my period. Works ok. Not as absorbent. (TMI I know - sorry).

Otherpeoplesteens - I use dried veg, onions, mixed veg, mushrooms, tomatoes, peppers and courgettes. Buy online and at Lidl during Italian week along with their jars of peppers and cucumbers.
Dried peas did not die out with our grandmothers, plenty cooked and stored in my freezer and you can buy freeze dried corn but we don't like it.